Questlove On Sly Stone And The Burden Of Black Genius

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4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

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Summary

For the holiday weekend, we're revisiting our recent interview with Questlove. His documentary, SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), examines Sly Stone's enormous impact on music — and the price he paid for it. "Sly will invent the alphabet for which most of pop and R&B or Black music will write from for the next 60 years," Questlove says. "We're still writing from his dictionary to this day."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR's ThruLine podcast with a Peabody Award, he praised it for its historical and moral clarity.
0:10.0	On ThruLine, we take you back in time to the origins of what's in the news, like presidential power, aging, and evangelicalism.
0:18.0	Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR.
0:24.0	This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. Today, as we kick off the unofficial start of the summer,
0:29.8	we'll listen back to my interview with Amir Kwestlove Thompson, recorded earlier this year,
0:34.7	about the life and legacy of Sly Stone.
0:37.4	I want to thank you for my nephew. earlier this year about the life and legacy of Sly Stone. Be myself again.
1:00.2	Questlove's documentary called Sly Lives,
1:02.6	a Kyi Lives, aka The Burden of Black Genius,
1:06.1	is about Sly Stone and his band Sly and the Family Stone,
1:08.8	and their impact on music and culture.
1:13.5	Sly got his start as a DJ and record producer in the early 1960s,
1:17.4	formed a multiracial band with his brother, sister, and other musicians,
1:19.7	and went on to record hits like,
1:23.4	Everyday People, Dance to the Music, Family Affair, and Stand.
1:27.2	Their music influenced Prince, George Clinton, and Funkadelic, the Ohio players, Earthwind
1:29.0	and Fire, and many hip-hop artists. The film also covers the problems that came along with
1:35.0	fame and drugs that took Sly Down. Questlove is the co-founder of the hip-hop band The Roots,
1:41.4	which is the house band for The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.
1:45.0	He had another documentary that came out this year focused on Saturday Night Live's music
1:49.5	guests and music sketches over the past 50 years. That one's called Ladies and Gentlemen
1:54.8	50 Years of SNL Music. Questlo's 2021 film, Summer of Soul, featuring performances from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, won an Oscar for Best Documentary.
	...

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